The U.S. District Court for Wyoming on December 12, 1997 held that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s final rules establishing a nonessential experimental population of gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho and southwestern Montana are unlawful and ordered the Service to remove all of the reintroduced wolves and their offspring from the Yellowstone and central Idaho areas.

The controversial wolf-reintroduction program is an historic milestone as wolves were wiped out of the Rocky Mountains earlier this century to protect sheep and cattle. Most environmentalists hailed the program as a step toward restoring a long-lost natural balance.